Notable Changes
- Interactive Maps marker progress tracking on all wikis
Recent Fixes
?file=somethingparameter on mobile opens that image in a lightbox- StructuredQuote template works on mobile
- Max height added to sitenotice on mobile
- "header overflow" error fixed
- Feeds error no longer interferes with the SocialActivity API
- "Let's Go" buttons on the "Welcome to FanCentral [Beta]" landing page work again on mobile.
Fixes in Development
- Autoconfirmed error incorrectly mentions email confirmation when wiki requires both.
- Inaccessible Special:Analytics text on dark theme
Development Updates:
Engagement
- Backend Discussions update
- Question: should commenting on mobile become possible?
Monetization
- Ad removal on non-existing pages
- New wikis only get ads after Terms of Use compliance review
UGC
- [Release] Structured Quotes
Progress in the Making blog series
Hello, hello, hello lovely people! Time flies and September is already here. Today's blog is the first of two Technical Updates posts to inform you about updates to the platform. Every two weeks, we release a blog post detailing a selection of more visible bugs that have been fixed, changes that were or are about to be released on the platform, and experiments that are or will be running. This is also a good opportunity for you to ask questions or share feedback in a constructive manner. Even if you think we're already aware of an issue, it's better to report anyway so we hear it twice rather than risk us not knowing about it at all. But that's enough from me, let's dive into the changes of the past two weeks!
Notable Changes
We've been talking about this for a while, mostly for gaming wikis, but now we can say that marker progress tracking has been added as a default feature for all Interactive Maps. You may have seen this switch within the Map editor for a while, but there was a bug preventing users from saving progress. Enabling the feature can be done on a map-by-map basis and doing so will add a checkbox to the markers, the wording of which can be controlled via MediaWiki messages. Once a marker has been checked, its opacity reduces to make it visually easy to see which markers are still up for grabs. To ensure a proper working, markers must have a unique marker ID, otherwise markers with the same ID will mirror each other, i.e. marking one as done will also affect the other. You can find more instructions on the help page on how to use this feature. Read more about progress tracking on Interactive Maps.
Recent Fixes
- On FandomMobile, the
?file=somethingparameter will open that image in a lightbox just like on desktop. - The default StructuredQuote template have been optimized and refined for mobile use.
- A max height was added to the Sitenotice on mobile to prevent the close button from being hidden outside the viewport.
- The "header overflow" error caused by large cookies has been fixed.
- Feeds error interfering with the SocialActivity API, causing old events to reappear as new entries as well as code errors on empty threads/posts, has been fixed.
- The "Let's Go" buttons on the "Welcome to FanCentral [Beta]" landing page now properly link to FanCentral on mobile.
Fixes in Development
- If a wiki requires an account to be both autoconfirmed and emailconfirmed and an account it already emailconfirmed, the received error about the lack of being autoconfirmed incorrectly mentions email confirmation.
- Due to an update to the library used for drawing the charts on Special:Analytics, the text of the charts on dark theme no longer meets WCAG accessibility requirements.
Development Updates
Engagement
- Product Support Owner: Héctor
- [Internal Tweaks] Not all work instantly yields visible results. The team finished a backend discussion-service upgrade, which helped fix some of the recent display issues with Discussions, and has been discussing next steps. One of these is the possibility to bring back commenting on articles to mobile users. If you have any thoughts about this, please let us know in the comments!
Monetization
- Product Support Owner: Tim
- [Ad Removal] Ad removal on non-existing pages: Another step in our effort to provide a better ad experience for users has been taken last week. No ads will show up on pages that do not exist in the actual database but only in our placeholder “You can create this article” landing page. Previously, ads appeared on URLs like
community.fandom.com/wiki/Hi_this_is_a_random_example, even without article content.
- [Ad Removal] New wikis only get ads after Terms of Use compliance review: Starting next week, newly created wikis will not display ads until they are reviewed for compliance with Fandom's Terms of Use and ad policies. More details on the review process will be shared after the change is implemented, so stay tuned!
User Generated Content (UGC) team
- Product Support Owner: Antonio
- [Function Release] Structured Quotes release: You may have noticed the FANDOMBot adding a new Template:StructuredQuote to your wiki (release has been finished on most wikis except for the really big ones). The idea behind this new template is that it is a way for you to create quotes on your wiki (you can adjust the appearance of the template with css just like you would with any other template) that are easy to reuse and maintain, as updating the original quote will update all instances where it's being used. This is the first step in our bigger project around Structured Content. Although ready to be used already, we continue our work on the template, now focusing on creating a new user interface that will allow easy creation of Structured Quotes from within the VisualEditor, as well as investigating a way to facilitate easy conversion without having to change everything manually. If you haven't yet, please give the new Structured Quote a try and let us know what you think of it (good or bad, as long as it's constructive, we love to hear your feedback). You can read more about Structured Quotes and the workings of the template on the structured quotes help page.
Progress in the Making: Checking in on Fandom's Product Roadmap
Last week, the Product Support Team released a blog series dedicated to showcasing the tangible results of Fandom's product roadmap as it was announced at this year's Community Connect as well as what's still to come. It'll also highlight how feedback received by users like all of you have directly influenced the features, tools, and experiences we're building. In case you missed these blogs or just want a quick refresher, here are the links:
- Product Support & Stars
- User Generated Content (UGC) Team
- User Experience Team
- Engagement Team
- Ad Experience Improvements
That's it for the past weeks! Per usual, if you encounter something that feels off about the platform, please report it by sending in a bug report, reach out to your Community Manager, contact the Product Support Owner on their Wall/talk page, or just simply sound off in the comments here. Remember to include a link to where you're experiencing the issue, a screenshot if it is something visible, as well as steps to reproduce your issue. As always, thank you for helping us by continuing to communicate. Happy editing, everyone!
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